WARNING: Canon Owners at Risk

Caveat: I assume for this comment that (1) the disclaimers set forth on the last page of in the
S95 Camera User Guide
("Guide") .pdf are like those that appear in other Canon camera guides, and (2) that the Canon "Green" policy that allegedly precluded the provision of a printed guide applies as well to other current Canon cameras.

The Canon
Disclaimers
are:

[1]
Reprinting, transmitting or storing in a retrieval system any part of this guide without the permission of Canon is prohibited.

[2]
Canon reserves right to change the contents of this guide at anytime without prior notice.

[3]
Illustrations and screen shots of this guide may differ from slightly from the actual equipment.

[4]
The above items notwithstanding, Canon accepts no
[sic]
liability for damages due to mistaken operation of its products.

So, strictly speaking, I violate Canon's prohibition in posting this comment. So, it would seems that Canon does not wish its Disclaimers or Guide quoted in any written discussion. Indeed, it is not possible for one to digitally copy any part of the Guide without a "owners password", because when one highlights any part of the .pdf text a notice immediately appears that states in bold and prompts:

Without the owner password, you don't not have permission to copy portions of this document.
Enter owner password to unlock copying from that document

Although I am putatively the "owner" of a new S95, and indeed acknowledged as being registered as such with Canon, I have not any knowledge of any "owner password" as nonesuch has been provided to me by Canon. (For the reasons stated herein, I question the extent of my "ownership.")

Like some of you I am a novice at photography. I bought chose to buy the S95 for two reason beyond the endorsement I have read here of its excellent functions. First, I thought it would be an instructive instrument that would teach me photography by using it. Second, it's "pocketability" would encourage me to carry and use the S95 ubiquitously. The S95 is my third Canon. I have an S80, which became my wife's after I bought an S70 from a pal and paid for its minor ($120) repair. Each of those models provided a handy
User Guide
for ready reference anywhere. (I failed to use the S70 (and tote that "brick") for personal reasons.)

I as most novices have a need for that ready reference, but ready reference is not possible with the S95, because Canon prohibits
Reprinting, transmitting or storing in a retrieval system any part of this guide without the permission of Canon . . / Therefore, one is not permitted to download print-out and store on one's laptop or mobile device the Guide .pdf file. Moreover, if one does not own a mobile device one wold have to purchase one to have access to the online Guide, and of course access to the internet. If one could print-out the Guide, one would have to schlepp 196 letter-sized pages or half that number printing two/page.

Therefore, in accord with Canon's disclaimer of liability for damages resulting from the "mistaken operation" of an S95, if one uses the camera without limited (and inconvenient) availability of reference to the Guide permitted by Canon, one is placed as risk of assuming consequential damages might result.

Photography can occur anywhere and everywhere, but one cannot use a Canon S95 (and I assume other current Canon cameras for not any printed manuals are provided) without the risk of assuming liability. So, it would seem that one does not enjoy full ownership of one's Canon camera - one is not free to use it wherever and when ever without risk, because one cannot access the Guide to verify proper use, because on cannot print or store same digitally. This burden upon one's property right would be removed by the provision of a printed Guide, as Canon had previously provided.

I have raised this issue with Canon, and it's response was not satisfactory to my need, and belies it putative "Green" policy. Canon offered to provide me a photocopy of the Guide .pdf file. I explained that packing a 196 page photocopy would defeat the "pocketability" feature of the S95, declined the offer and demanded a typeset and printed manual like the one provide with the S70 and S80, which would be handy everywhere. I await Canon's reply.

Meanwhile, I am consulting (not engaged) a kind, learned counsel as to the opportunity to petition for declaratory action to determine my rights
vis á vis
Canon and perhaps obtain an injunction ordering the provision of a printed manual. As a practical matter, and in accord with the risk of liability imposed by Canon's disclaimers, a printed Guide is part of the system contained in the camera, and necessary for it intended fitness or use; and hence the failure to provide same is a breach of Canon's implied warranty. (In this connection I have tried to access and copy a Canon's limited warranty, but this Google link:
[PDF] download the Canon USA Limited Warranty - Canon Global
does not render the file, but this notice
"Referral Denied -You don't have permission to access "
http://downloads.canon.com/warranty/canon-usa-limited-warranty.pdf
" on this server.
)